Reneé Rapp’s Rise to Queer Fame
By Anna Buescher
Every sapphic is familiar with the popular indie singer Girl In Red. She sings slow haunting sapphic love songs as well as soft indie pop songs about her mental health issues and the impact they have on her life. While no one can dethrone the classic sapphic indie singers like Girl In Red, King Princess, and Fletcher, Reneé Rapp has started gaining popularity amongst the sapphic community.
Reneé Rapp came into the spotlight after her role as Regina George in “Mean Girls the Musical” and as Leighton Murrey in “Sex Life of College Girls”. She took her fame and began a music career in 2022 that quickly gained a large fan base through her amazing voice and emotional performances. Now Reneé Rapp is a growing pop star with over 3.5 million listeners on Spotify. Singing lamenting, up-beat, indie pop songs about love, life, and being queer, it’s not hard to see why she has attracted so many fans, especially fans in the LGBTQ+ community.
Rapp’s strong vocals and emotional singing can be traced back to her childhood. She was always surrounded by music and began writing songs when she was a teenager. She attended theNorthwest School of Arts and starred in many theater productions. She was awarded the Blumey Award for Best Actress and the National High School Musical Theater Award for Best Performance by an Actress for her role in her school’s production of Big Fish back in 2018. Recently, Reneé Rapp has been spending her time focusing on her music career. Her newest debut album Snow Angel has been released and is garnering non stop praise and recognition. She is on tour this October traveling around the US and Europe performing her new album. Almost all of her shows have sold out.
One of the main reasons behind Reneé Rapp’s massive sapphic fan base is her music videos. Featuring flirty women, bars and parties, soft smiles, and unassuming looks, these videos give a visual representation to how Reneé Rapp’s music sounds. Not to mention they offer poignant gay flirtatious relationships in media, a topic which is still considered taboo by many corporations. Seeing representation in the media is all too important, and Reneé Rapp makes sure she includes a wide variety of people in her videos. In the official music video for her song ‘Too Well’, popular TikToker Dylan Mulvaney and actress Alyah Chanelle Scott made appearances as her friends post breakup. In Pretty Girls we see an onscreen romance blossoming between Reneé Rapp and another woman. In Talk too Much we see yet another sapphic romance on screen. These kinds of representations are essential to make everyone feel seen.
Reneé Rapp really has taken the music industry by storm since her debut as Regina George. She’s captured the hearts of millions and makes them feel seen. As she belts her feelings into the void her fans belt back their love and appreciate for this sapphic artist. She is an important step in the new wave of sapphic representation and has a long road of singing and stardome ahead.
About the Author:
Anna Buescher is a current junior at Butler university studying Biology and French. She uses she/they pronouns and identifies as a queer woman. She is passionate about LGBTQ+ rights, climate change, fungi and much much more. You can reach out to her at abuescher@butler.edu.
